by Mike Reeder, CONTRIBUTING WRITER , San Antonio Express-News

In the half century since that original edition went on sale, the magazine has become the gold standard of the state's football coverage, and Campbell has become a living symbol of Texans' on-going love affair with the gridiron.

Campbell, who was at Boerne Toyota to promote Champion High School's game in his Texas Football Classic, will be the first to tell you he never saw it coming.

"That first issue was in 1960 and it had Texas running back Jack Collins on the cover," Campbell told the Northwest Weekly. "Four of us did the whole magazine. Three of us wrote it and Hollis Biddle at the Waco Tribune Herald helped lay it out. So it was a purely fly-by-night deal.

"When we put it to press, we did it all on my wife's kitchen table. Of course, I expected immediately to get rich. Instead, I lost 5,000 dollars the first year. I lost 3,000 dollars the second year and I was still putting it together on my wife's kitchen table.

"Why she didn't banish me from the house and end the marriage I'll never know."

Most people would have packed it in. Instead, Campbell kept plugging away, and 50 years and 50 issues later his faith in the magazine and the fans it serves are still paying off.

"Here we are with our 50th edition, and my wife and I are about to celebrate our 60th wedding anniversary, so I guess everything worked out all right," Campbell said with a chuckle.

In addition to publishing Texas Football magazine, Campbell was sports editor of the Waco Tribune Herald for 40 years and turned out a special publication for Baylor athletics for 15 years.

"Except for the work on Texas Football magazine, I'm pretty well retired at last," Campbell said. "I'm 84 years old now and looking forward to the future."

Over the years, Campbell has chronicled some of the most memorable college and high school games in state history. He cites a game at Palestine that made a star of future UT and NFL linebacker Bill Bradley and a state championship game between Wichita Falls and San Antonio Lee featuring future Rice and NFL quarterback Tommy Kramer as the top school-boy contests. His top two college games both involve the Texas Longhorns.

"The Texas-Arkansas game in 1969 for the national championship and the game at the Rose Bowl just a few years ago when Texas upset Southern Cal for the national championship in particular stand out," Campbell said.

For current players like incoming Champion senior quarterback Taylor Davis, playing in the Texas Football Classic and being featured in Campbell's magazine are the stuff dreams are made of. The Chargers will kick off their season against Midlothian in one of five games played over three days in late August.

"It's huge," Davis said. "During spring practice we were already thinking about Dave Campbell coming to town. They took pictures of us for the magazine, and we all bought it on the first day. Then we bought it again here so he could sign it."

Judging by the crowd jammed inside the Boerne Toyota dealership last Thursday, the Alamodome will be packed with Charger fans. Even Campbell seemed surprised by the turnout, and he has been traveling the state on behalf of the Texas Classic.

But throughout his travels and over the years, one thing that never surprises him is the emotional fervor Texans have for what transpires beneath the Friday-night lights.

"Texans are just passionate about their football ," Campbell said. "They love it. They always will and they always have. Particularly in the smaller cities, when somebody says the last one heading out for the game should turn out the lights, it's still true."

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